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Magnetism in iridate heterostructures leveraged by structural distortions
Fundamental control of magnetic coupling through heterostructure morphology is a prerequisite for rational engineering of magnetic ground states. We report the tuning of magnetic interactions in superlattices composed of single and bilayers of SrIrO(3) inter-spaced with SrTiO(3) in analogy to the Ru...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2019
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6414659/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30862782 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-39422-9 |
Sumario: | Fundamental control of magnetic coupling through heterostructure morphology is a prerequisite for rational engineering of magnetic ground states. We report the tuning of magnetic interactions in superlattices composed of single and bilayers of SrIrO(3) inter-spaced with SrTiO(3) in analogy to the Ruddlesden-Popper series iridates. Magnetic scattering shows predominately c-axis antiferromagnetic orientation of the magnetic moments for the bilayer, as in Sr(3)Ir(2)O(7). However, the magnetic excitation gap, measured by resonant inelastic x-ray scattering, is quite different between the two structures, evidencing a significant change in the stability of the competing magnetic phases. In contrast, the single layer iridate hosts a more bulk-like gap. We find these changes are driven by bending of the c-axis Ir-O-Ir bond, which is much weaker in the single layer, and subsequent local environment changes, evidenced through x-ray diffraction and magnetic excitation modeling. Our findings demonstrate how large changes in the magnetic interactions can be tailored and probed in spin-orbit coupled heterostructures by engineering subtle structural modulations. |
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